The present inventions relates to wood reduction equipment and more particularly to feed assemblies for a wood reduction apparatus.
Various machines are available on the market for reducing waste wood, such as scrap timber, tree limbs and brush. One common type of wood reduction machine is a wood grinder. Grinders typically operate by essentially hammering wood into wood fragments in a hammermill. For example, a conventional grinder may include a hammermill with a rotating drum. The drum carries a plurality of hammers that protrude from the surface of the drum. In use, wood waste is fed into the rotating drum. As the waste passes into the swath of the hammers, it is battered into wood fragments. The wood fragments may be driven by the hammermill through grates. The size of the holes in the grates may be selected to assist in controlling the size of the resulting wood waste.
A typical grinder includes an infeed assembly that delivers wood waste to the hammermill. For example, a conventional infeed assembly moves wood into a hammermill in a direction perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the hammermill. Because wood waste often includes brush, limbs and other waste that is most easily fed into the feed assembly in random piles or clumps, it is typically desirable to provide the grinder with a wide hammermill and a wide feed assembly that can accommodate wide piles or clumps of waste. Narrower feed system can require small piles or clumps and therefore may slow down feeding and operation of the grinder.